Barnes v. Carter

154 S.W.2d 229, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 786
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 5, 1941
DocketNo. 3877
StatusPublished

This text of 154 S.W.2d 229 (Barnes v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnes v. Carter, 154 S.W.2d 229, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 786 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is an action by appellant, J. R. Barnes, against appelleees, A. L. Carter, et al., to recover the manufactured value of the timber cut by appellees from the following described tract of land, or in the alternative its value as standing timber :

100 acres of land, the same being a part of the Millholm and situated in Tyler County:

Beginning at Gavino Araujo N. W. corner;

Thence W. at 206 vrs. a stake on the W. boundary line 71 acres deeded from W. T. Carter & Bros, to S. G. Payne, a pine marked X brs. N. 30 deg. W. 6 vrs. and a pine marked X bears S. 15 W. 10;

Thence N. at 630 vrs. a stake on the Feagin S. boundary line, a sweet gum bears W. 4 vrs. and a pine bears N. W. 8 vrs.;

Thence E. with Feagin’s S. boundary line at 896 vrs. a stake on Mrs. Barnes’ W. boundary line from which a pine bears W. 9 vrs.;

Thenc-e S. at 630 vrs. Mrs. Barnes’ S. W. corner on the Gavino Araujo N, boundary line;

Thence W. at 696 vrs. to the place of beginning.

Appellant holds title under J. B. Wilson, to whom the land was conveyed by deed, dated February 28th, 1898, by W. T. Carter and Brother, out of a larger tract owned by them on the Millholm survey. The land which appellant now claims as being within his field notes is part of the land owned by W. T. Carter and Brother on the Mill-holm when they made this deed to Wilson; appellees hold the disputed strip under Wilson’s grantees. On trial to a jury on conclusion of appellant’s testimony, judgment was for appellees — they offered no testimony — on an instructed verdict, from which appellant has duly prosecuted his appeal, on the theory that the court erred in instructing the verdict.

The Araujo survey is a five-league grant, surveyed in 1834 in the form of a rectangle, with its four sides straight lines and its four corners right angles. The Millholm survey, containing a league and labor, was patented in 1847, and adjoins the Araujo [230]*230on the N. and W., its E. B. line being a common line with the Araujo W. B. line, running S. from the Araujo N. W. corner, and its S. B. line being a common line with the Araujo N. B. line running E. from the Araujo N. W. corner. The S. G. Payne tract, referred to in the Wilson field notes, is out of the N. W. corner of the Araujo; its N. and W. lines being sections of the N. and W. lines of the Araujo and its N. W. corner being the N. W. corner of the Araujo. The Payne tract lies immediately W. of the Kirby tract, which is also out of the Araujo, with its N. E. corner a common corner with the N. W. corner of the Kirby tract, and the N. B. line of the Kirby tract being a section of the N. B. line of the Araujo, an extension E. of the N. B. line of the Payne. The Robert Rotan survey lies immediately E. of and adjoining the Millholm, and immediately N. of and adjoining the Araujo. The Mrs. Barnes tract, referred to in the Wilson field notes, is out of the S. W. corner of the Rotan. The Feagin (referred to also as the Barclay) tract is out of the Millholm and lies about 630 vrs. N. of the N. line of the Araujo. On all the evidence the land described in appellant’s field notes is out of the S. E. corner of the Millholm, and bounded on the E. by the Mrs. Barnes tract. On the trial no issue arose as to the location on the ground of the S. B. line of the Feagin (Barclay), its S. W. corner, its S. E. corner, the W. B. line of the Mrs. Barnes tract, her S. W. corner as being in the N. B. line of the Kirby tract (the N. B. line of the Araujo), the N. B. line of the Kirby tract, its N. W. corner, the N. E. corner of the Payne tract, and its N. B. line. Appellant’s location of the N. W. corner of the Araujo tract was indefinite and uncertain, so much so that appellees advance a counter proposition to the effect that the evidence did not raise a jury issue on this point. We pretermit a discussion of this counter, proposition, and for the purposes of this opinion concede that the evidence was sufficient to send this issue to the jury. The location of this corner as contended for by appellant is marked by a sashweight. In our discussion of the evidence we shall refer to appellant’s location of the N. W. corner of the Araujo as the sashweight corner, and to the N. W. corner of the Kirby survey as the Kirby corner.

We make the following statement of the issue between appellant and appellees. Appellant contends that in surveying his land on the ground the surveyor should begin at the N. W. corner of the Araujo (the sashweight corner), run course and distance for the S. W. corner, the N. W. corner and the W. B. line, and for the N. E. corner run to the Mrs. Barnes W. line as an adjoinder, then down her W. B. line to her S. W. corner for his E. B. line, thence W. with the N. B. line of the Araujo to its N. W. corner, the sashweight corner, as the beginning point. Thus surveyed appellant’s field notes would contain 176.S acres of land. Appellees contend that the call for the N. W. corner of the Araujo, the sashweight corner, was a mistake; that .the parties mutually intended to call for the N. W. corner of the Kirby tract, and that this fact was established as a matter of law. The verdict was instructed for ap-pellees on their theory of the evidence on this point.

The following statement of the facts is from appellant’s testimony; as stated above, appellees offered no testimony. Measuring W. 206 vrs. from the sashweight corner, appellant’s surveyor found no stake and no bearing trees, and nothing to indicate their prior existence. Every vara W. from the sashweight corner carried the" surveyor that much farther from the Payne tract, this because the sashweight corner is the Payne N. W. corner. Measuring W. from the Kirby corner at 213 vrs. the surveyor found a stake identified as the corner called for in the Wilson field notes by the very bearing trees called for in the field notes; thus the bearing trees were “a pine marked X brs. N. 30 deg. W. 6 vrs. and a pine marked X bears S. 15 W. 10”. One of the bearing trees found on the ground bore 29.5° W. 6 vrs. and the other bore S. 16° W. 10 vrs. On this issue Judge Tatum, appellant’s surveyor, testified:

“Q. Well, Judge Tatum, those are almost exactly the pines called for in the field notes for the southwest corner of the Wilson tract, aren’t they? A. Yes, sir, they fit for it.
“Q. Well, did you ever see within any reasonable area in this part of the world the two calls that would fit or be duplicated as perfectly as that? A. No, sir.”
“Q. Do you feel as a surveyor, Judge Tatum, reasonably satisfied in your mind that those trees are so located as to probably be the bearing trees for the south[231]*231west corner? (Objection and colloquy of Counsel). A. Yes, — -According to the course and distance they fit reasonably well for the southwest corner.
“Q.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 S.W.2d 229, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 786, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnes-v-carter-texapp-1941.